whitewolffandomcom-20200213-history
Lupanar
The Lupanar is one of the mysterious locations of the Hedge. A hobgoblin brothel owned by the Madam, where time seems to pass much faster than usual. Overview This building sits atop a hill in the Hedge, coils of crimson thorn ringing the bottom and a field of Fear Gortach (“''hungry grass''”), covering the rest of the knoll. The structure itself is nothing fancy, and in fact seems far too plain for the Hedge: it’s a three-floor construction, just a bland block of dried clay with square windows and a square door. No ornamentation. Little color. Bland in nearly every way — and that includes the interior of the building, too. It is, for the most part, a series of seven rooms per floor, and each room is just (you guessed it), a square room with square windows and a rectangular bed in the middle of the floor. And the bed? It’s made of stone. No pillows. No comforter. Just hard, cold stone. It’s perhaps tough to envision that this is actually a brothel (of sorts). Soon as one enters the building, a parade of hobgoblins emerges from the shadowed corners of the rooms, and these entities offer themselves to the character. The hobgoblins run the gamut: beautiful succubi, strange aliens, insectile monsters, and so forth. If a character shows any inclination toward one over another, that hobgoblin tries to take the changeling off to a room. For the most part, the goblin offers no discussion — he, she, or it gets right down to business. No discussions of money take place. They engage in a hard sell of seduction, or at least attempt to. Should the character be unwilling or instead seek to talk first, most of the hobs will allow the changeling some measure of hesitation. The creatures will talk (provided their fey biology allows for such communication). But they’ll always try to return to the act itself, even bringing in other hobgoblins to try to continue the seduction. They never force the issue, but they certainly make for not-so-gentle urgings. When the Hedge-trollop is “done” (or has been summarily rejected), it will return to the shadows where it once more hides in the corner, barely seen. Should a character engage in violence against one of the Lupanar’s workers, the Madam will emerge to ensure the safety of her children. Rules With the Lupanar, the following rules are in play: • Characters that engage in sex here unwittingly perform a trade-off. Every five minutes of fornication with one of the hobwhores causes one of the following to happen: the character loses one point of Willpower and gains one point of Glamour; the character takes a –1 dice pool in a Skill category (Mental, Physical or Social) but gains +1 in a different Skill category (Mental, Physical or Social) with these new modifiers lasting for the next 24 hours; the character heals one point of bashing or lethal damage, but loses one point of Glamour. • Time is not consistent here. Every minute spent within the Lupanar is a half-hour passed once the characters have left (so, spending 30 minutes within the brothel means the characters have actually spent 15 hours inside its walls). • Any characters with Lust as a Vice who engage in any kind of sexual or seductive act with the hob-whores gains two Willpower points as a result, not just one. Goblin Whore The hob-whores are not forced to do what they do. They do it because it’s what they’re good at. They are rewarded for the task of seducing and fornicating: each has developed a symbiotic relationship with the Lupanar itself, and what the Lupanar gains from those who partake of its pleasures, the hobs gain, too. They’re not automatons, though — each hob has its own predilections, its own moods, and some foolishly give into their ill moods and negative feelings, which only serves to drive off potential clients. One can always tell the novitiates from the so-called veterans of the trade: the young ones are always nervous, either too eager or too reserved. They run the gamut from “woman with a human face but elegant spider’s limbs” to “priapic satyr with oiled chest”. Some are monstrous, others purely freakish, while only a few are beautiful by human standards. Most are professional — seduction is everything. It’s all about the act, about ensuring that the client feels good. This can mean that it’s not necessarily about sex, of course — any physical pleasures that the hob-whores can bring to the table, they will. Again, some let their moods or feelings get in the way, but doing so is dangerous. Not only does it run off the client, but it can displease the Madam. Nobody wants that. Character Sheet Average Goblin Whore Mental Attributes: Intelligence 2, Wits 3, Resolve 2 Physical Attributes: Strength 2, Dexterity 4, Stamina 3 Social Attributes: Presence 5, Manipulation 3, Composure 3 Mental Skills: Medicine 1, Occult 1 Physical Skills: Athletics (Sex) 3, Brawl (Grapple) 2, Stealth 2 Social Skills: Empathy 3, Expression 3, Intimidation 1, Persuasion (Seduction) 4, Socialize 2 Merits: Ambidextrous 3, Disarm 2, Striking Looks 2 Willpower: 5 Virtue: Hope Vice: Lust Initiative: 7 Defense: 3 Size: 5 Speed: 11 (species factor 5) Health: 8 Wyrd: 1 Glamour/per Turn: 10/1 Armor: none Contracts: Mirror 3 :Fae Aspects • Exude: The hob gives off an odor that is both pleasant and unpleasant. The way that a perfume is built off a foul smell, like ambergris, is at work here — beneath it all is a potent, even pungent odor that draws the attention, but the rest is a sweetly smelling, almost narcotic effect. Roll Strength + Expression and spend a point of Glamour. Successes on this roll become penalties to any character’s resistance on a Seduction attempt against him. • Trade-Off: As noted above, when the character actually engages in a physical act of pleasure (a purposefully ambiguous term) with the hob, some manner of trade-off occurs. The character is aware of the trade-off, and may at any time end the physical act to stop the trade-off from occurring. References *Dancers in the Dusk, p. 92-94 Category:Changeling: The Lost geography Category:Hedge (CTL)